According to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, Chrysler Financial arbitrarily, "suddenly and without notice" put Hecker's credit lines on hold, which effectively froze his "auto floor plan" financing, the mechanism by which dealerships pay for their inventories. The complaint also alleges that Chrysler notified the manufacturers of Hecker's auto dealerships that it had suspended the floor plan credit lines.

"By suspending these credit lines, Hecker and his companies were unable to finance the purchase of new vehicles that were produced by these manufacturers," the complaint says, adding that this "resulted in significant damage to Hecker and his businesses."

MinnPost is also starting to speculate what this could mean for the Twin Cities media community. Hecker is a big advertiser in the dailies.

The Denny Hecker Automotive Group currently owns 18 Minnesota dealerships and three in California.